Apple has cornered the flash memory market

[PhxProvost]

Apple has purchased Samsung’s entire available supply of NAND flash memory — the kind used in both newer iPods and iPhones — putting the chipmaker on allocation until April 2009.
Source (http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/02/19/report-apple-has-cornered-the-flash-memory-market/)


:shrug: they are definitely up to something :shrug:

[Nanometer]

um.. yea product production... apple goes through the most flash memory out of any other multimedia distributor, naturally they want the most in supply.

[Papu]

DEY TUK UR FLAAAAASH!


Maybe its a new laptop with only flash memory , so its horribly tiny , but when you turn it off everything is lost and you have a fresh operating system.Sounds like a Jobesque tastic.

[zanzabar]

its probly becouse samsung is the only one making low-mid spec flash, and with the ssd sales up there needs to be more production

[saaya]

hah, good way of killing off the competition as well isnt it? :D
maybe they are replacing hdds on their laptops?
effectively they bought all nand for march, 1 month production, thats a lot but not THAT much...

before the ipod launched they bought the 1.8" hdd allocation for over a year from some hdd mfcs to put things into perspective :D

[Humminn55]

There are sooo many things wrong with that title, where to begin.........but here's a couple of reasons the headline is sensationalistic and just scare-mongering........

1. Apple bought Samsung's excess capacity of flash memory, not all of Samsung's flash memory production. Those manufacturers that use flash memory in their devices, such as phone mfgr's., MP3/MP4 player mfgr's., etc., have long since contracted with their flash memory supplier(s) for XX amount of memory to be delivered this year. Large manufacturers do not just go and buy what bits/components they need on a willy-nilly daily/weekly/monthly basis; instead they want and need a dedicated, steady supply of said component delivered weekly/monthly. Hence, they sign contracts with the makers of said components for delivery during the upcoming year......at least that long. Apple didn't negate the already dedicated and allocated contracts for supply of flash memory to other manufacturers....

2. Samsung is not the only flash memory maker. Samsung is the largest maker, but not the only maker. Samsung has 40% of the flash memory market, leaving about, I don't know, like 60% of the market unaccounted for.............

3. If you really need some flash memory, I'm certain other companies, like maybe Intel, would be more than happy to supply whatever needs you may have. With everyone's production down right now, I'm sure finding someone with excess manufacturing capacity to supply the appropriate flash memory wouldn't be terribly difficult.

[RejZoR]

All your flash are belong to us. Apple

Lol:lol:

[SKYMTL]

One of the posters above is correct. Apple bought the EXCESS stock. Before we let the rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth Apple hippies take over with this information, we have to remember that the H2 2009 allocations of flash memory from Samsung have already been for sale for some time now. This means that the majority of their production is ALREADY spoken for by many other companies other than Apple.

IMO, what we are seeing is Apple taking advantage of fluctuations in the memory market to buy these chips at a low price in order to gain a larger profit margin on current production iPods and iPhones.

[Biker]

One of the posters above is correct. Apple bought the EXCESS stock. Before we let the rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth Apple hippies take over with this information, we have to remember that the H2 2009 allocations of flash memory from Samsung have already been for sale for some time now. This means that the majority of their production is ALREADY spoken for by many other companies other than Apple.

IMO, what we are seeing is Apple taking advantage of fluctuations in the memory market to buy these chips at a low price in order to gain a larger profit margin on current production iPods and iPhones.

Presactly ;)

[Chruschef]

All your flash are belong to us. Apple

Lol:lol:

lol :rofl:

this article is an example of how apple gets a bad reputation(i'm not saying us apple geekys don't get a bit to fanboistic sometimes.. i know we do..;)*looks at sig*).. they bought a :banana::banana::banana::banana: ton of memory, not the last memory supply to rule them all or something.

[Papu]

lol :rofl:

this article is an example of how apple gets a bad reputation(i'm not saying us apple geekys don't get a bit to fanboistic sometimes.. i know we do..;)*looks at sig*).. they bought a :banana::banana::banana::banana: ton of memory, not the last memory supply to rule them all or something.

yes but they get preferential treatment from intel aswell , Taking allot of the first penryns for the Macbros , also the fact that they get the highest binned chips so they can run 3.6ghz or whatever . I hope they have to pay a serious premium on all this kinda stuff.